how did bike clubs get branded "outlaws" never have i seen any club member with a patch that states "outlaw" or any symbol.

perhaps someone in a club can explane how this come about ?

is it a name the media or govournment come up with or is it something bike clubs come up with????

OUTLAWS are one of the oldest clubs around and I would suggest that their club name started the naming of all 1% clubs as OUTLAWS, who started it I wouldn't know but it started in the states.

One percenters (1%)

It's not just bike clubs but anyone who supposedly lives outside the law...Stems from way back...

It came from the original clubs not being sanctioned by the American Motorcycle Association. Thus, "outlaws". Has nothing to do with criminal intent or behaviour.

Then.

Hollister..Google is your friend

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollister_riot

 

Outlaw motorcycle clubs who identify with this subculture are not necessarily criminals, with members expressing their outlaw status on a social level, and not necessarily equating the word outlaw with criminal activity.[1][2][3][4][5]

There are also non-outlaw motorcycle clubs, such as the Harley Owners Group and women's motorcycle clubs, who adopt similar insignia, colors, organizational structure and trappings, like, in the case of men, beards and, in general, leather outfits which are typical of outlaw clubs, and make it difficult for outsiders to tell the difference between the two. It has been said that these others groups are attracted by the mystique of the outlaw image while objecting to the suggestion that they are outlaws.[9][10]

1 percenter= outlaw club

Yep Hollister is the key to it initially, an AMA spokesman reportedly commented that the intrusion into the Hollister rally by groups of riders who werent sanctioned members were therefore outlaws to their organisation and because of their ruffian behaviour they only represented 1% of all motorcyclists. The media have referred back to that event for so long now that the 'outlaw' and 1% tags have stuck, and in many cases been embraced as a description but not necessarily a behaviour.

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